Won-Ton Reflects

The other night my mom stayed up late. Sometimes she can't sleep and she stays up using her computer. The other night she was done on her computer but wasn't sleepy yet, so she took out the cat charmer toy and dragged it back and forth.

Ooh, what fun! Usually we only play just before dinner or after my mom and dad's after-dinner walk. But to chase the cat charmer after midnight was a rare treat! I had a lot of fun hunting it and pouncing on it and killing it several times.

My mom finally went to bed, but I realized I still wanted to chase. The whole house was dark and quiet. I sat for a while in the living room shadows, ready to hunt something, hoping the cat charmer would spring to life on its own and race across the room. I thought that would be the bestest thing ever, for the cat charmer to come alive and zip off over the carpet. I thought it would be fabulous fun to tear after it and sink my claws into its soft fleecy tail. I thought that would be really, really good.

But the cat charmer lay there dead. No matter how hard I thought about it, the toy did not stir. None of my mental efforts had any effect on it whatsoever. It sat deader than a doornail, right in front of me. I tapped it, but nothing happened. I swiped at it, but nothing happened. It lay still and lifeless.

I began to feel disappointed. I began to feel cheated. I began to feel annoyed. I began to feel frustrated. I wasn't finished hunting. I wanted something to chase, and I wanted to chase it *now*.

So I marched into the bedroom and yowled with all my might at my mom and dad lying in bed, "IWANNAPLAY!!!!NOW!!!!" I raced back into the living room just as they threw the covers aside, half asleep and mumbling "What's going on?" "Won, are you all right?" "What happened?" "Is there something wrong?"

I felt a little sheepish by then and I wanted to tell them to forget about it, I didn't want to chase anymore. But now they were up and stumbling about in the dark living room, trying to get a look at me to see what was wrong. They followed me into the kitchen and back into the living room and into the hall and back into the living room again. They petted me. They asked if I was okay. I chirped and purred. They decided there was no crisis to deal with. They also decided 1:30 in the morning was not the time to play chase with the cat charmer toy. So they stumbled back into bed, and I sat in the dark living room for a while thinking about stuff. Then I went to sleep on the couch.

In my dreams I chased, caught and killed the cat charmer toy thousands of times, yowling with victory each time! Ha!